I've been shopping here since my teens, when I'd drop by for Chinese biscuits or confectionery. It's my favourite place in London for southeast Asian ingredients. Although it's really small, they cram in an amazing amount of stuff - fresh and fried tofu, spring roll and wonton pastry, rock sugar, fruit and veg, kitchen gear, teas and a really good make of wasabi peas, Hapi.

Not pretty - the tables and chairs are plastic and the roof corrugated iron - but the food is outstanding. They do incredible seafood, such as butter prawns or razor clams in black bean sauce. It's amazingly cheap, too.

Worth making a special trip for. I love the sheer variety of ingredients - goji berries, linseed or flaxseed oil, beautiful stuff from Thailand, like mangosteen or durian, scores of different cheeses.

Jesse's

41 Tianping Lu, Shanghai, China, 00 86 21 6282 9260

My brother lives in Shanghai and every time I visit him I have to eat here. They do fantastic tsong you mein (noodles with minced pork, spring onions and chives, all drowned in a gorgeous pork broth). It's very small, though, so it can get packed out.

Shanghai Blues

193-197 High Holborn, London WC1, 020-7404 1668

The chef, Hong Qiu Feng, makes the best dim sum in London - his Shanghai dumplings stuffed with pork and a sort of jellified pork stock, and served with black vinegar and ginger, are the best I've had this side of Shanghai. He also does what I'd term 'bling sum' - new spins, like staining the dumplings different colours with vegetable juice or decorating them with gold leaf.

Terraces Bar & Grill

Unit 8, Madeira Drive, Brighton, 01273 545250

The Italian comfort food, mezze-style brunch here really hits the spot. Lovely views of the sea and good service, too.

• Ching-He Huang presented BBC2's recent Chinese Food Made Easy. Her book of the same name is out now (£16.99, HarperCollins).